power outages that aren't weather related are not increasing. https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/surging-weath...

Where did they say they were?

You may be referring to California who had issues last year during an historically high heat wave. This year, they are not having the same trouble. Part of the reason is that they increased production capacity since last year.

The main reason is that this summer has been much, much cooler in CA. In SV, for example, we've had a handful of days over 90 this year, whereas last year there were probably 20 days over 90 at this point in the summer. Our AC has only kicked on a few times all year, whereas last year it was on much more frequently.

There may have been increases in production, but it would have been shocking if we'd had rolling blackouts this year, given how mild the summer has been. Other parts of CA are warmer than SV, but AFAIK (having family in Sacramento and LA) this summer has been cooler than last summer all over CA.

California is very close to seeing blackouts right now. If there's another heat wave on the scale of last year, there will be blackouts again.

But that’s highly localized. And one of the most reported areas where this happens is Texas, who decided to roll their own grid, and is now paying the price for that stupidity.

I'm skeptical of a narrative where concern for the electrical grid's ability to handle load is only considered for EV growth over several years versus the air conditioning use in the current unprecedented heatwave.

Anecdotally, my A/C energy usage (compared to last year) far outweighs my energy usage in an EV.

Not to mention radical increases from demanding everyone switching to heat pumps plus demanding industry switch to electrified versions of everything too. It's seriously a complete fantasy to think the grid can happen all that with minimal upgrades.

Dominion Energy in Virginia has an even worse problem than EVs to worry about: datacenters

https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2022/RD216/PDF

If you scroll to page 66 of the PDF, it’s insane how much more demand is needed for datacenters. It completely dwarfs forecasted EV power usage.

The US is a huge exception, your power grid is from the age when cowboys roamed the lands. Literally.

There was a huge fire that was caused by a power line slowly mechanically wearing down its connector. OVER A HUNDRED YEARS. Nobody bothered to check or replace it.

Also you have exceptions for oil and gas pipelines. 1-2 permits on a high level and the land owners can pound sand if they complain.

For power lines you need levels on a dozen different levels and even after that everyone who can even see the power poles has the irrefutable right to veto said wire or at the very least sue and slow it down to a crawl...

It's weird how the US went from the "fuck it, let's visit the Moon" country to the "electricity stuff is too hard, wah" country. Snap out of it!

A) you can charge your EV at off-peak times.

B) the US electricity grid is uniquely unreliable for a developed country.